2012

HiI have two Brother garter carriages (a KG95 and a KG93) and the power adaptor/sensor has stopped working on both of them following yarn tangles. The sensors cut in on both of them to stop the G-Carriage (as it should) but neither will start. I am now looking to buy one or two replacements. Do you know where I might be able to buy one?Many thanks, Elizabeth

HiI badly need a new lamp to illuminate my knitting, particularly in the winter months. The lights I have seen are expensive so want to get the right light. Please can anyone advise?Many thanks.

Hi JackyI have had a light for many years which I got form the Daylight Bulb Company and you can find them on the internet. The one I use has magnifying glass with it and is very useful for fine work or tranferring stitches etc. Hope this is of some help to you.Joy

HiI hope someone can point me in the right direction of what to do or try. I haven’t used my knitting machine (Brother 950i) and motor drive (KE100) for ages so I am very rusty. Thankfully the machines aren’t! and before using the 950i I cleaned, oiled and changed the sponge bar. I was trying a sample yesterday when the carriage jammed and the motor drive safety mechanism kicked in by releasing the carriage from the motor shuttle, as it should. I cleared the problem and tried to reset the motor but it will not move the shuttle. In days gone by when this happened I did not have a problem resetting the shuttle and restarting the motor. The power light is on but nothing happens when I press the foot pedal. I’ve taken the pedal apart and checked visually for loose or burnt out wires and that’s OK. I don’t know if it is the motor sensor, yarn sensor or something else. Can anyone help please?

The following is a neckband I have used many times. It gives a neat appearance and is fairly easy.

Instead of casting off stitches at the back and front neck and at the top of the sleeves on a raglan garment take these pieces off the machine by knitting several rows of waste yarn.

Join your garment pieces together leaving one shoulder seam open.

Hold the neckline up to the machine to ascertain how many needles you need for the neckband. The number of needles will be the number of stitches held on waste yarn plus extra for the sides of the front neck.

Bring forward the appropriate number of needles and arrange them according to the rib you wish to knit.

Cast on with a slightly looser stitch size than you would normally use hang your comb and weights.

Knit double the number of rows you require for the depth of the neckband. You can gradually decrease the stitch size for half the rows the gradually increase it again for the second half.

Transfer all the ribber bed needles to the main bed and knit one row at main tension the stitch size you used for the garment pieces.

Drop the ribber and hook up the stitches held on waste yarn and pick up the whole stitches (not just the edge loop) evenly down the front of the neck shaping.

Knit one row at main tension then one row at tension 10.Cast off by latching through the loops either while the knitting is still on the needles or knit several rows of waste yarn at main tension and remove from the machine then latch through the loops of the last row of main yarn.

Sew up the remaining shoulder seam fold the neckband in half to the inside and catch the cast on row to the loops of the cast off row with fairly loose stitches so that there is some ‘give’.

This gives a double thickness neckband the row knitted across all stitches before attaching the garment gives a neat finish.

I suggest you try this out on your tension swatch before trying it on your garment just to see how it works.

Kind regards Sue.

Sue P

2012-12-20 14:37:43

Hello Annie

The following is a neckband I have used many times. It gives a neat appearance and is fairly easy.

Instead of casting off stitches at the back and front neck and at the top of the sleeves on a raglan garment take these pieces off the machine by knitting several rows of waste yarn.

Join your garment pieces together leaving one shoulder seam open.

Hold the neckline up to the machine to ascertain how many needles you need for the neckband. The number of needles will be the number of stitches held on waste yarn plus extra for the sides of the front neck.

Bring forward the appropriate number of needles and arrange them according to the rib you wish to knit.

Cast on with a slightly looser stitch size than you would normally use hang your comb and weights.

Knit double the number of rows you require for the depth of the neckband. You can gradually decrease the stitch size for half the rows the gradually increase it again for the second half.

Transfer all the ribber bed needles to the main bed and knit one row at main tension the stitch size you used for the garment pieces.

Drop the ribber and hook up the stitches held on waste yarn and pick up the whole stitches (not just the edge loop) evenly down the front of the neck shaping.

Knit one row at main tension then one row at tension 10.Cast off by latching through the loops either while the knitting is still on the needles or knit several rows of waste yarn at main tension and remove from the machine then latch through the loops of the last row of main yarn.

Sew up the remaining shoulder seam fold the neckband in half to the inside and catch the cast on row to the loops of the cast off row with fairly loose stitches so that there is some ‘give’.

This gives a double thickness neckband the row knitted across all stitches before attaching the garment gives a neat finish.

I suggest you try this out on your tension swatch before trying it on your garment just to see how it works.

My friend and I decided to open a small boutique, selling cashmere apparel for women. As I mentioned we are beginners in this area, so I have one question regarding the yarn and specifically about the count. Many suppliers offer us different kinds of yarn like Nm 2/60, 3/80 and so on but we don’t understand which one is the best for us?! We have flat machine 5 and we will use one and more plies for our apparel. My question is what does it mean Nm 2/60 (numbers and letters)? How should we choose the yarn so it is good for our flat machine?! Thanks in advance for your help!Regards, Marina

Hi Marina

Yarn counts are very confusing but I’ll try to help.

The Nm stands for ‘normal metric’ – which is based on 1 000 metres of yarn per kilogram.

The first number refers to the number of strands plied together.

The second number tells you how many hanks of 1 000 metre lengths of a single ply of the yarn would weigh one kilogram. The higher the second number the finer the yarn. The numbers you have mentioned equate to very fine yarns.

HiI’m having an issue with my carriage catching needles in one direction. The carriage operates normally from right to left. However from left to right is seems that as the needles are pushed forward and pass over the plate they ‘bump’ inside the carriage. They then want to ‘snag’ and bend slightly until they suddenly let go when the tension is suddenly released. I can’t see where there’s anything protruding to hang them up. Any ideas with this? By the way, the machine is very new.Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi

Try taking the sinker plate off the carriage check that both sides match and that both sides are evenly attached; there are three little screws either side which hold the metal plates in place. These metal plates should be parallel to the gate pegs.

When you fit the sinker plate back on to the carriage make sure it is seated properly and is flat against the carriage before you tighten the thumb screws.

If these simple measures do not rectify the problem as your machine is new I suggest contacting the suppliers.

Kind regards Sue.

Sue P

2012-11-24 14:43:10

Hi

Try taking the sinker plate off the carriage check that both sides match and that both sides are evenly attached; there are three little screws either side which hold the metal plates in place. These metal plates should be parallel to the gate pegs.

When you fit the sinker plate back on to the carriage make sure it is seated properly and is flat against the carriage before you tighten the thumb screws.

If these simple measures do not rectify the problem as your machine is new I suggest contacting the suppliers.

My problem is that I can’t get the patterning to work. The pattern note in the book says:-MB carriage set to tuck in both directions. RB carriage set to slip from left to right and knit from right to left. I understand how to set the knit carriage to tuck in both directions but don’t understand the settings for the ribber carriage. I have tried many combinations with the buttons on the ribber carriage, but am now running out of wool and patience! Please can anyone help me?

Hi

The easiest way to explain the ribber setting is to set it as you would for the selvedge rows when casting on. Check in your ribber manual if you are not sure.

You need to set the right side of the ribber carriage so that it will slip when you move the carriages from the left side of the knitting to the right side.

Regards Sue.

Sue P

2012-11-05 13:51:34

Thank you so much Sue – I shall be trying this as soon as I have done all my chores. Lyn.

sillytoes

2012-11-22 15:34:53

Hi

The easiest way to explain the ribber setting is to set it as you would for the selvedge rows when casting on. Check in your ribber manual if you are not sure.

You need to set the right side of the ribber carriage so that it will slip when you move the carriages from the left side of the knitting to the right side.

Regards Sue.

Sue P

2012-11-05 13:51:34

Thank you so much Sue – I shall be trying this as soon as I have done all my chores. Lyn.

Need help to be able to continue with ribber to complete the collar of my jumper. No known repairer for my ribber.

Hi Pat

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

As you can knit the first few rows all right I would not think there is anything wrong with your ribber.

Is your sponge bar in the main bed OK? It’s worth checking as if it’s worn it can cause problems when you use the ribber.

You do not say which yarn you are using or what type of rib you are trying to knit. However hang the ribber comb after the first zig-zag row and when you put the weights on hang them evenly – one at each end of the knitting and one in the middle if it is wide.

If you are using every needle on each bed (full needle rib) make sure your stitch size is not too tight – somewhere near that needed for stocking stitch and that you have the ribber set to H so that the needles do not crash into each other.

For 1×1 rib you will need the stitch size quite a bit lower and the ribber set to P.

Your ribber manual will explain about other rib set-ups.

Sometimes it helps to ‘knit’ without any yarn in the carriage so you can see what is happening.

Hope you are able to sort out the problem.

Regards Sue.

Sue P

2012-11-05 13:38:39

Hi Pat

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

As you can knit the first few rows all right I would not think there is anything wrong with your ribber.

Is your sponge bar in the main bed OK? It’s worth checking as if it’s worn it can cause problems when you use the ribber.

You do not say which yarn you are using or what type of rib you are trying to knit. However hang the ribber comb after the first zig-zag row and when you put the weights on hang them evenly – one at each end of the knitting and one in the middle if it is wide.

If you are using every needle on each bed (full needle rib) make sure your stitch size is not too tight – somewhere near that needed for stocking stitch and that you have the ribber set to H so that the needles do not crash into each other.

For 1×1 rib you will need the stitch size quite a bit lower and the ribber set to P.

Your ribber manual will explain about other rib set-ups.

Sometimes it helps to ‘knit’ without any yarn in the carriage so you can see what is happening.